Live from Nieuw Statendam - Legends of the Fjords, May 28 to June 9

[Analog187]

6 minutes ago, ExpatBride said:

 

Do you happen to remember his name? I don't want to miss him if he's still performing when I'm onboard next month. He sounds right up my alley!

That's what he goes by, the Pianist with the Hair.  His real name is julian gargiulo.  Either way, look him up on Youtube.  He is really incredible.  

[ExpatBride]

6 minutes ago, Analog187 said:

That's what he goes by, the Pianist with the Hair.  His real name is julian gargiulo.  Either way, look him up on Youtube.  He is really incredible.  

 

Thanks... it looks like he won't be on my sailing 😩

[wdw1972]

Thank you for your review - I enjoyed following along on your trip.  I've sailed HAL many times, starting in my 30's and currently 64.  My last cruise was on the Nieuw Statendam this past March (in the Caribbean).  Thankfully I've never experienced a hot stateroom or uncomfortable bed.  In fact, if anything the stateroom is chilly, but I like to keep it that way so I can sleep under the thick cover and when lounging in the stateroom I just put on the robe.  Billboard has always been 2 piano players but has never been "dueling pianos" style.  From my experience it's been rare to find 2 of them with great voices - usually 1 has been good to great and the other has been poor to barely ok.  Love BB Kings, but will miss LCS on my upcoming cruises.

 

I no longer do the MDR (probably been over 10-12 years) but that's just my choice.  I prefer specialty, sometimes Lido or something else (like Grand Dutch Cafe).  Overall the world is getting ruder by the minute it seems!  I've encountered a few cantankerous people on my many HAL cruises, but only once (pre-covid) was there someone who was truly rude - in that case I chose to walk away but did tell her she was ridiculous/rude but not worth my time to attempt a conversation with someone so rude (I sat down at an untouched table in the Lido with my dinner then she & travel companion showed up to announce that was their table and they were just getting their food - with NOTHING disturbed or left on the table to indicate it was taken.  Pointing that out left them standing there holding their plates glaring at me but not going away, lol).  I hope my next HAL cruise (November 2023) is mostly free of the rude passengers.

 

Sue/WDW1972

[Analog187]

15 minutes ago, wdw1972 said:

Thank you for your review - I enjoyed following along on your trip

I appreciate that.  I spent a lot of time giving everyone the real picture of what I encountered with no hidden agenda.  Despite that people got triggered.  

 

I wonder if it was just my room that was hot.  I should have asked around.  Either way, nothing was gonna get done about.  It really seemed like they were understaffed.  

[Florida_gal_50]

1 hour ago, Analog187 said:

 

And yet you're still here

Hoping to win a prize 😛.  We know you won’t 😂.

[mlgb]

I think HAL is relatively expensive compared to other lines, but that includes free room service (which is no longer an option on NCL). I believe it is also possible to order dinner off of the MDR menu for room service.  I wonder if other frequent HAL cruisers can comment on that? I think they continue with free room service because the meal service hours are limited. 

Obviously making dinner reservations ahead of time for two would have helped (you admit that you did not know about). 

 

I also used the old school breakfast hang tags to order room service breakfast during the first window even if just for coffee and some yogurt.  My room (old ship Volendam) did not have a refrigerator but I still kept some fruit and snacks on hand just to avoid the scrum in the buffet. BTW Princess is even worse in terms of poor management of the buffet on cold sea days. They also don't have both sides open when they should. 

 

I am not a hamburger and pizza person and prefer fish as a main vs steak so for me dinner menus on HAL work better than most lines. On NCL I am a big fan of the Indian station at the buffet (Bliss is home ported in Los Angeles part of the year, so I've sailed her a few times).  MDR food on NCL is repetitive and to me, boring. But this is a personal preference. On NCL I almost feel that they 'dumb down' the MDRs to force you into specialty dining but on HAL it doesn't seem necesary.

Edited June 8, 2023 by mlgb

[badtwin]

46 minutes ago, Analog187 said:

I appreciate that.  I spent a lot of time giving everyone the real picture of what I encountered with no hidden agenda.  Despite that people got triggered.  

 

I wonder if it was just my room that was hot.  I should have asked around.  Either way, nothing was gonna get done about.  It really seemed like they were understaffed. 

Curious who you asked to fix. We had drain stopper that wasn't working and DH was not able to fix himself.  He asked steward about it and someone fixed within a few hours.  Did anyone check if it was just a whonky thermostat?  Miserable being hot at night. Sometimes you need to go low enough down the food chain to find someone who actually knows how to do anything.

 

 

And to your other point, has cruise critic gotten nastier post covid?  We started cruising again this winter after covid-imposed hiatus, which brought me back here and I felt the tone is much worse.  Critics seemed more critical and critics of critics much less accepting of someone else's opinion and/or experience

[Analog187]

4 minutes ago, mlgb said:

MDR food on NCL is repetitive and to me, boring. But this is a personal preference thing. 

Agreed, their food is mostly trash these days.  But they do have a few good things.  We were just really excited about the food on HAL and in the end, we were disappointed. 

[mlgb]

NCL also has scooped ice cream in the buffet! Neither Princess nor HAL does that. 

 

I also like the snacks up in the Observation Lounge on the big ships. 

 

I always read up on menus before and during a cruise (either posted online, during cruise on the TV or sometimes a paper menu up at the entry room) so can plan where to eat (MDR or buffet).  When we did 3 weeks repo on Bliss (LA to NYC) we would plan specialty dining around boring menu days in the MDR. 

 

I was surprised to see free sushi on HAL in the buffet. 

Edited June 8, 2023 by mlgb

[Analog187]

16 minutes ago, badtwin said:

Curious who you asked to fix.

We told them the AC seemed to shut off in the middle of the night.  They assured us it was fine.   I wasn't about to argue with them as they just didn't seem to care about a lot of things. 

 

16 minutes ago, badtwin said:

And to your other point, has cruise critic gotten nastier post covid?

That's my take.  I can't believe how many people are getting triggered because I have an opinion or an observation.  You'd think they owned the cruiseline.  If I think something is the best ever and you think it's horrible, cool, you do you. But nope, a lot of people can't handle that.  Lol.  The world is going crazy. 

 

I admin 3 FB groups and one of them has almost 300,000 members.  We have to delete so many comments because people get triggered over nonsense.  

Edited June 8, 2023 by Analog187

[Analog187]

1 minute ago, mlgb said:

we would plan specialty dining around boring menu days in the MDR

 

Have you been able to compare NCLs specialty dining with HALs?   We thought NCLs was way better.  I think that shocked us the most. 

[Analog187]

3 minutes ago, mlgb said:

NCL also has scooped ice cream in the buffet! Neither Princess nor HAL does that. 

 

 

HAL had that this cruise.  There was usually a line so I didn't bother. 

[mlgb]

Yes we did like several of the specialty dining venues on NCL. My travel partner is younger than you(!) with Platinum Status so we had two dinners at Cagneys which had poor service and some cold sides. The others we tried and liked were Le Bistro(2x), where the captain eats(!), Ocean Blue and even Los Lobos. Lukewarm on Food Republic.

 

I did not feel any need to do specialty dining on HAL so can't compare. 

[mlgb]

4 minutes ago, Analog187 said:

 

HAL had that this cruise.  There was usually a line so I didn't bother. 

I'm surprised!  It's about time. They did that on the last day on the Princess cruise I took recently and was also shocked.

[vjblk]

1 hour ago, Analog187 said:

I appreciate that.  I spent a lot of time giving everyone the real picture of what I encountered with no hidden agenda.  Despite that people got triggered.  

I liked reading about your cruise. It was good to read about what you did and experienced.  I like hearing the good along with the bad.  Some just don't like to hear what you didn't like. I'll go on my cruise and see if I have the same experiences as you. Everything is subjective. You can ask 3 people to evaluate something and you would probably get 3 different answers. 

I didn't take it that you didn't enjoy your cruise. Just that you experienced some things that you didn't like. That doesn't mean those ruined your cruise.  At least I hope not.

[singleflyer]

8 hours ago, Analog187 said:

Putting the bed and food issues aside since some people will have different opinions on that, I would not recommend HAL for someone that is looking to splurge a little on a more premium experience.  I would instead suggest Celebrity or perhaps Virgin which I've yet to check out but I've heard amazing things from friends.  If HAL was about the same price as NCL, I would suggest HAL over NCL.  As I've said before, I could have done a similar cruise on Carnival and saved $2000.  So did I get $2000 worth of value on this cruise?  I just don't see it.  $500. Sure.  Maybe even $800 but not $2000.  

 

But I'm not HAL's demographic as we were younger than 80% of the people there so maybe my opinion is not relevant.  I have no reason to make things up and I am not partial to one line or another.  It's just one opinion of many on the internet so take it for what you will.  If you disagree, great, but there's no need to get triggered because someone had a different opinion.  We had at amazing time and I'm looking forward to our next cruise.

 

 

I'm 40 so about your same demographic.  I took my first cruise in years on Virgin and LOVED it.  Check it out for sure.  

 

I am trying HAL on Nieuw Statendam later this summer (followed by another week on Virgin).  I am a bit nervous about HAL but willing to give it a try.  I appreciate your perspective, and I'd love to check out your blog.  

[Analog187]

4 hours ago, singleflyer said:

I'd love to check out your blog.  

It's in my profile.  I probably can't link to it here.  Let me know if you can't find it 

[Analog187]

7 hours ago, vjblk said:

You can ask 3 people to evaluate something and you would probably get 3 different answers. 

I didn't take it that you didn't enjoy your cruise. Just that you experienced some things that you didn't like. That doesn't mean those ruined your cruise.  At least I hope not.

 

You get it 100%.  Not sure why other can't although at this point I think one or two of them are just trolls. 

Edited June 9, 2023 by Analog187

[jakkojakko]

12 hours ago, Analog187 said:

 

LCS was a dual venue with BBK.  LCS is gone so it is just BBK now.  

 

They said there was nothing they could do.  As I've said, there were a number of things I didn't get into where their attitude was "tough luck".  My guess is that they turn the AC off at night but since a lot of older people like it warm, no one really complaints.  Just a guess.  During the day our room was fine.  Right around midnight, it would feel like a sauna.  That would last until about 8am and then the AC would work again.  

Was on the cruise before you and I can definitely state that they do not shut down the airflow at night. We never had the airco on full cold but the airflow was cold and cabin not hot. Either they changed policy or your particular room airco was faulty.

As for the crew being new. Again same thing, we had no troubles at all . Everything was run smoothly and friendly. I know HAL does change crews, but never everybody at once. 

Same with food in the mdr. We ate there most of the time and really did not have any complaint on quality or taste.

I do not dispute your findings, but it sounds like a totally different ship than I was on.

[djvand]

Loved this!  I read through it all at once and appreciated your views.  One question about the casino.  Did you use cash or can you charge against your account using your room key?  In this case, are there any associated charges for doing so?

[Analog187]

11 hours ago, jakkojakko said:

Was on the cruise before you and I can definitely state that they do not shut down the airflow at night. We never had the airco on full cold but the airflow was cold and cabin not hot. Either they changed policy or your particular room airco was faulty.

As for the crew being new. Again same thing, we had no troubles at all . Everything was run smoothly and friendly. I know HAL does change crews, but never everybody at once. 

Same with food in the mdr. We ate there most of the time and really did not have any complaint on quality or taste.

I do not dispute your findings, but it sounds like a totally different ship than I was on.

I don't doubt that at all.  I'm sure the people in the cabins on either side of us had different experiences than we did.  As I mentioned, at least a dozen people were very, very cranky so perhaps they had much, much worse experiences or they are just really cranky in general.  No idea.  It's nice to know that the AC thing isn't a shipwide issue.  

[Analog187]

4 hours ago, djvand said:

One question about the casino.  Did you use cash or can you charge against your account using your room key?  In this case, are there any associated charges for doing so?

 

I don't even think you can use cash.  You use your key card and charge everything to your account.  What's crazy is that there are no charges for this.  I know other lines have a % unless you hit a certain level or something but with HAL, you just charge it to the room.  The only thing is that if you have OBC you cannot use it to offset the casino charges.   I made it a point to cash out every night anyway so I had hundreds of dollars in charges and a little more in cash since we actually won.  

 

Glad you appreciated my posts.  

[cruising sister]

You can use cash in the slots but you get a ticket when you cash out. You can also do room charge if you like. I play a mental game of Daily Cash allotment and save my tickets to cash out in the end. it keeps my spending down. 

[cruising sister]

I have cruised NCL, Celebrity and HAL since startup. They have been similar in costs and services. HAL’s itinerary won out for Norway. As far a CC being more negative since startup I find it the same. I have been a member since 2009 and they naysayers have always been here. I don’t do any other social media so I don’t have comment on that. I actually find there are some very nice and supportive threads on all the boards. I just stay away from the negative ones like I have done for the past 14 years. 

[NE John]

I’m getting a lot out of this threat and appreciate @Analog187 really talking to us and telling it like it is. This is a great conversation. 
There is a mix of both hope and melancholy in your blogs. Sounds like you expect more and with a $2k premium over Carnival you have every right to expect more. 
I look forward to your post-cruise thoughts overall because a Norway trip is high on my list, especially in November to see the Northern Lights. 
Thank you.